Winemakers Anna Clifford and Brittany Zotovich always have something new up their collective sleeves.

The two, the minds behind Dreamcote Wine Co., this year produced small batches of hard apple cider, which will be formally released this Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Dreamcote Fall Wine Release party, along with a new grenache, sausages and small-batch mustards and yes, guests wearing lederhosen.

In North America, “cider” is unfiltered apple juice. Beverages such as Dreamcote’s are known as hard cider, as they are fermented. While alcohol levels vary, they’re usually below 10 percent. Dreamcote’s is at 7 percent.

I caught up with the ever-affable Zotovich earlier this week in Buellton at Terravant Wine Company, where she is senior director of sales/winery services.

Dreamcote’s cider is available at select eateries, via the Los Olivos tasting room and can be purchased by the bottle or growler

For several months, Dreamcote’s 100-percent apple cider has been available by the bottle, but only recently have Clifford and Zotovich also made it obtainable via 2-liter growlers, poured straight from the keg.

The Dreamcote cider can be found at Scratch Kitchen in Lompoc and Industrial Eats in Buellton, as well as at a couple of Los Angeles accounts, where sales “are cranking,” Zotovich said.

She and Clifford are enthusiastic about experimenting with “cider trials” when they produce another batch in the next few months, and, Zotovich added ,“we hope to evolve into a line of seasonal and fruit ciders,” such as one made with apricots.

She discovered new inspiration by attending the Cider Summit in Portland last June. The Northwest Cider Association sponsors the two-day event in the food/wine/craft beer/spirits-savvy city. Zotovich returned home full of ideas and with a bright tank (vessel for secondary fermentation of beer or cider) in the back of her truck.

While Portland is a metropolis, it showcases an entrepreneurial spirit reminiscent of a smaller town, and encourages hand-crafted goods of all types. The earnest and enterprising Zotovich took note.

“I want to bring Portland down here as much as possible!”

Dreamcote’s Fall Wine Release Party will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Los Olivos, 2933 San Marcos Ave. (down the street from the corner of San Marcos and Alamo Pintado avenues).

This Oct. 10 grenache pick would be their first from this small site, located on Baseline Avenue just east of Ballard.

The vineyard’s owners had approached managers at Terravant Wine Company, where Clifford works as a winemaker and Zotovich as director of sales/winery accounts, for consulting help.

Zotovich, foreground, and Clifford pick grenache from a vineyard near Ballard on the morning of Oct. 10.

“Brit and I worked with the owners this year to get the vineyard where we want it,” Clifford said.

That work included performing two green drops, a crop thinning maneuver used to weed out unripe (green) berries as cluster ripening progresses.

In October, the McGinley Vineyard syrah grapes that I observed the two harvesting on Aug. 29 were about one-third of their way to becoming Dreamcôte’s 2014 Carbonic Syrah and the juice was displaying “pretty beautiful acid,” Zotovich said.

Clifford and Zotovich founded Dreamcôte in 2012. On the website is what I believe to be the perfect description of their company: “A secret society of flavor crazed, dynamic and tenacious individuals that give this project life.”

After many months of research and tasting, Clifford and Zotovich this year made the leap into cider production. Hard ciders are gaining popularity with wine and beer consumers, especially those who favor something “a little bubbly” now and then.

My introduction to ciders came courtesy of these two. On an August evening, with a meal of bread, cheese and fresh salads prepared by Zotovich, we shared various ciders from a couple of local producers.

I was intrigued: Both the “fizz factor” and the ABV are low (usually less than 8 percent), but there’s nothing timid about a well-made cider.

Under Dreamcote, the two will produce two ciders: “one dry, and one off dry,” said Zotovich.

* * *

On Nov. 11, while the bulk of the cider was fermenting away in a 300-gallon tank back at Terravant, Clifford and Zotovich had me meet them at Lompoc’s Zotovich Cellars.

There, they had divided several gallons of cider into “yeast trials” in roughly a dozen sample jars, topped with loosened lids to prevent explosion — just in case a sample jar suffered excessive carbonation. Each jar contained a different yeast.

Unscrewing lids and sniffing the jars’ contents, Clifford and Zotovich described aromas that ranged from “apple cider to flat allspice, from yeast to lemon to beef broth, and from chicken all the way to sweet and vinegar.” It was a start.

Their goal, for optimal cider: “We want as little ‘fizzy’ as possible,” Zotovich explained. The finished cider will be bottled unfined and unfiltered, since “people ‘get’ that a cloudy appearance” is a hallmark of ciders.

Both Dreamcôte’s 2014 Carbonic Syrah from McGinley Vineyard and the 2014 Grenache Rosé are targeted for release on Feb. 21, Zotovich told me this week.

The cider release date is “more fluid,” with hand bottling scheduled for sometime in March, and a picnic targeted for later that month or early in April, depending on weather conditions.

This site, in Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, is the grape source for their label, Dreamcôte Wine Co., and its 2014 Syrah, which Clifford and Zotovich will make utilizing carbonic maceration, commonly known as the Beaujolais style.

In 2013, their second vintage of Dreamcôte, the women sourced pinot noir from Duvarita Vineyard outside Lompoc and crafted a light, fruity wine meant to drink sooner, not later. Fermented in a stainless steel tank, that wine is “gulp-able now (not next year),” according to the label’s tasting notes. And that’s exactly the duo’s plan again this vintage, but with the McGinley syrah.

* * *

Clifford and Zotovich founded Dreamcôte in 2012. On its website, they call their company “a secret society of flavor crazed, dynamic and tenacious individuals that give this project life. We live simply, but well. (We have) trailer parties with friends, vineyard movie nights, irrigation pond floating sessions, great food, lots of wine.”

After spending one dinner and a morning both at McGinley and in the Terravant Wine Company cellar with these bright, determined and fun-loving women, I’d say the web description is apt.

Cowboy boots are perfect picking attire. Just ask Brittany Zotovich.

The two met at Terravant, where both work fulltime: Clifford as a winemaker and Zotovich as director of sales: winery accounts.

Curious about the inner workings of Terravant, I ask her for more details.

Zotovich, who radiates passion for wine and life in general, also really likes her job.

“I’m absolutely in love with what I do. I get paid to solve wine problems. Sometimes, the problem is a shortage of wine in a tasting room. I might be helping a sommelier put together a house wine program for her restaurant, or putting a grape farmer with excess syrah in touch with an alternating proprietor in need of syrah, or aiding a winery needing to meet a wine club deadline with a cold stability and bottling of their reserve chardonnay.”

Zotovich was born in Santa Clara, and raised in Grass Valley. In 2007, she earned a degree in Agricultural Business: International Management, with a minor in wine and viticulture, from Cal Poly. She started working at Kelsey See Canyon under Harold Osborne, and for Salisbury Vineyards, when she was just 19.

In 2010, Zotovich joined the winery owned by the family of the man she would later marry. There, at Zotovich Cellars, she helped open its Lompoc Ghetto tasting room, and launched the wine club and sales program.

In July 2011, Brittany Tanquary married Ryan Zotovich, also a Cal Poly graduate and the Zotovich Cellars’ winemaker. With his family, he also oversees Zotovich Family Vineyard, located in the heart of the Sta. Rita Hills. The vineyard is a source of viognier, chardonnay, syrah and pinot noir for the Zotovich label and many others.

Clifford, a native of Thousand Oaks, recalled being just 13 when she decided to become a winemaker. She credits a movie, “French Kiss,” the quirky comedy-romance starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline that was filmed in and around vineyards in France. However, “for me, it wasn’t about the romance, but the wine and vineyards,” she said.

With her family, the young Clifford visited Santa Barbara County and some of its earliest wineries and vineyards, such as Gainey Vineyard and Fess Parker Winery. “I always wanted to end up here.”

Fast forward to 2002, when Clifford graduated from UC Davis with a degree in viticulture and enology. Her winemaking career includes a stint as assistant winemaker for Buena Vista Winery, three harvests in New Zealand and one at Beringer Vineyards. In April 2012, she started at Terravant, and today, with two others, shares winemaking responsibilities for the entire facility.

* * *

At Dreamcôte, the theme is fruit-forward wines to enjoy now versus later. Over dinner, Zotovich likened the duo’s production focus to that of wines adapted for “on the table, not in the cellar.”

In other words — fruit forward and fun, ideal to “drink with friends, at a barbecue,” she said.

Part of Dreamcôte’s “drink me now” presentation is Clifford and Zotovich’s use of whimsical labels that prompt smiles. Take the 2012 Santa Barbara County Rosé: The label features a stack of rabbits — many, many rabbits. It’s a tongue-in-cheek ode to Zotovich, who raises them.

Rabbits — many rabbits — grace the label of the Dreamcôte Rosé

The grape varietals the two prefer to work with are “both mainstream and unique,” Clifford said. “We want wines that will engage people — and at a price point that won’t scare them.”

In addition to rosé and pinot noir, Dreamcôte’s current releases are a 2012 Riesling, Camp 4 Vineyards; 2012 Chenin Blanc, Johnson Vineyard, Clarksburg; a 2012 Zinfandel, from Launchland Home Ranch Vineyard, Lodi; and a 2012 late harvest white wine.

With a case production close to 380 cases, Clifford and Zotovich opened a tasting room on San Marcos Avenue in Los Olivos in February of this year. The site, Clifford said, “is something to be proud of.”

* * *

Back at McGinley Aug. 29, the harvest crew wasted no time snipping grapes from vines and dumping them by the bucket into picking bins atop a trailer. Both Clifford and Zotovich jumped in, bracing themselves against a bin to sort, separating the clusters from grape leaves or dried shoot tendrils and the occasional earwig or tiny spider.

Less than an hour later, the crew had filled three picking bins full of syrah grapes from Block 5L, which weighed in at 3,084 pounds.

Clifford, Zotovich and I trailed the Coastal Vineyard Care Associates’ flatbed truck to Terravant, where the grapes would be unloaded and the two could begin processing.

Guiding grape clusters from a bin into the opening of a tank requires timing, finesse and a sense of humor

Once a forklift and driver, dry ice, shovels, equipment and a pair of extra hands were at the ready, Clifford and Zotovich directed the dumping of whole clusters straight from the bins into the tank for a 14-day cold soak. Mixed in with the grapes were layers of dry ice, added via buckets.